We bonded over “sweet as”, a common zed phrase that sounds a little lewd in an American context (say it out loud and you’ll get my drift) but we’ve moved beyond that into the general things that friends talk about. School…boys…travel…and our favourite…FOOD. We, are myself and my friend lana. She is a trip andyesterday I hung out with her and her friends at a bbq she threw for a friend.

while plowing me with zed wine, lamb, and prawns we all hung out and got to know each other better…poking fun and teaching me about the subtleties of zed.

For instance, the cute boy in one of my classes might have possibly been “chatting me up” when he asked me if I knew where the busses are. I took this for kiwi kindness but apparently I need to hyper tune my detection of the male green light here.

After managing the bus I flopped into bed around midnight. Don’t judge me as too old given that I had an 8-hour class that morning and followed it up with some fun-filled partying afterward.

And I know all the working stiffs are smirking that 8-hours should be difficult when they do it every day…but I’ve done that kind of work too and let me just say that trying to absorb material for that long is different than work. And if you question that…think back to the last time you had an all day training session…it is no small feat!

Anyway, today was the pasifika festival. Auckland is considered the largest pacific island city in the world because so many folks converge here from islands I’ve never heard of, let alone seen on a map. The thing was enormous. Last year they estimated 200,000 people. And when you consider that the country has a population of a mere 4.2 million…that is no small gathering.

There was food to be had, live music, people calling me Fijian, crafts…did I mention people asking me if I’m from fiji?

At any rate, me and my friend hung out…talked about life, compared the pacific plight in zed to the black plight in America and the plight in general in Nigeria. Basically we had an amazing time.

We had an abundance of food and I apparently had an abundance of sun given that my face is a little red this evening.